Contents
Constitution Day and Celebrate Freedom Week – for Building Administrators
Kansas College and Career Academic Readiness Assessment??- for All Administrators
Literacy Plans – for EC5 Principals
Constitution Day and Celebrate Freedom Week
From Don Gifford
The success of an individual may be linked to academic and technical education but the success of our nation and the survival of our culture is linked to our social studies education.
???Citizens are not born capable of ruling. They must be educated to rule wisely and fairly. They must be drawn out of the egotism of childhood and the privacy of their homes into the public world of democratic reasoning, deliberation and consensus. This requires not only civility, but knowledge and skill.???
Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States
Just a reminder that Wednesday September 17th is Constitution Day. This day has been designated by the Congress of the United States as the day when ???each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution.??? (Federal Register /Vol. 70, No. 99 /Tuesday, May 24, 2005 /Notices) Click here for Federal Register.
Remember that we also have a state requirement that all K -8 graders celebrate freedom for a full week in their classrooms. (KSA Article 11:72-1130 and KAR 91-31-32) which includes a study of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and other founding documents. Click here for link to statute.
Following is a link to helpful resources for all grade levels: HGSS Resources Page. Scroll down to Celebrate Freedom Resources PDF.
Kansas College and Career Academic Readiness Assessment
From Dr. Randy Watson, State Commissioner of Education
On Tuesday, September 8, the Kansas State Board of Education will vote whether to approve the recommended cut scores set for the new state assessment students took earlier this spring. Once the board approves the recommended cut scores, KSDE will present the statewide aggregate assessment results. In advance of this presentation, we have prepared the following talking points about the new assessment and the new performance levels to assist with the development of your district-level messaging. We will provide additional resources throughout the timeline (included within the talking points below) established for the release of assessment results.
Our sincerest thanks to you and your staff for all you do to make Kansas schools great. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding the information included in the link below.
http://www.ksde.org/Portals/0/Communications/Admin/OC_KSDE_09032015_EducatorTalkingPoints.pdf
Literacy Plans
From EC5 Executive Directors
Literacy Plans are due September 18. Content Wednesday or Wednesday, September 16 might be a great opportunity to revise the plan with your staff, and decide what changes need to be made to incorporate the learning of the last few weeks, deepen the understanding of Writer???s Workshop, and ensure strong implementation of all of the components of the Big 3 +. We want to ensure that as we embark in the writing initiative, we continue to look for effective Interactive Read Alouds, Small Group Instruction and Monitored Independent Reading.